Baby Boomer-in-Chief: The Presidency of Bill Clinton – clip

Jeffrey Engel / Southern Methodist University

Bill Clinton was often the first, but rarely unique.  The first non-veteran since World War II to be commander-in-chief, he was indeed the first since that conflict who had not fought in World War II.  Part of the first all-Southern national political ticket to win the White House, he governed during tremendous years of economic growth yet broader uncertainty, and he nearly lost the presidency when the type of scandal ignored for previous presidents ran afoul of his political enemies, and of subsequent standards for workplace behavior and morality.  In other words, he was the quintessential Baby Boomer, and his rise to power, near fall from power, and years since power tell us much about the man, but also post-war America itself.